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STORMRIDERSSPECTRAL was completely new band to me. When CCP Records have sent me their new offering I really didn't know what to expect, but yet their record turned out to be a good one. Indeed Spectral has a quality to offer and the songs possess the potential. This troop comes from Germany and their upcoming album ''Gateway to Death'' is the 5th full-length in their history. Fans and lovers of Viking and Pagan metal in the veins of Amon Amarth should definitely check out this band.
Hello there! Since Spectral is completely new band to me please can you say few words about the band and say something about your biography? SPECTRAL was founded January 14 1995. Back then it was a two man project between me German "Teutonlord" Wollwert as vocalist and guitar and Meik "Destructor" Meiers on the drums. They were influenced or rather impressed by trash bands like Cannibal Corpse, Sinister, Nocturnus, but also My Dying Bride and Anathema. With the zest for action, while playing covers of well known songs, the two began to write their own tracks. While trying to complete the line-up with a bass player, due to being only halfhearted about it, things didn’t go too well. After a few important line-up switches, our own created style, "Black Viking Power" was born and is to this day part of Spectrals program. Meanwhile, we have our 6th record coming out. The first three were done by us and the last three were done in conjunction with a record label. From the first checking of your album I've noticed that you have various influences in your music coming from death, black and Viking metal, but all in all, everything sounds very effective. Do you have any comments about it? This is in general the direction we want to go. We want to combine different play styles of metal and not settle for just one. All this develops an effective, hard, aggressive, melodic but also catchy sound. How many albums have you released so far and what can you tell us about them? You're more or less very active since you have so far released 5 albums (including the new one). As said before, including the album coming out on march 26th, we have a total of 6. The first album "Teutonic Symphony", was a four song CD back in 1999, which still includes very keyboard heavy black metal. The second album "Barbaric Assault", which came out in 2001, was an obvious power metal themed record with approaches on Viking style. In 2004, the third album "Dawn of Gods", went a small step back towards black metal but themed to Viking metal. Our 4th album "Stormriders" followed in 2007. This is, in my opinion, our most important Album so far. With this, we had live gigs in other countries, our record deal and the songs "Black Viking Power", "Bang your Head" and of course "Stoemriders" which are played at every Spectral concert. 2009, our 5th album "Evil Iron Kingdom" came out. It was the successor to Stormriders. You can find "Die in Battle" and "Axecutioner" on it, which represent the album very well. And now in 2012, March 23 to be exact, our new album "Gateway to Death" will come out. It’s the most expensive and tweaked Spectral album. We are excited to hand it out! Were you from the very beginning on CCP Records? No. As mentioned earlier, our first three records were done completely in self production. Due to self production, things weren’t really professional. 2007, the storm rider year, was an important and good step towards professionalism. You will publish a brand you record out very soon during the March. ''Gateway to Death'' offers indeed good music, very specific mixture of various styles, so how would you like to present your music to us? Yes, that’s right. We all have a different taste of music in the band and almost every classic heavy metal play style is present in our songs. The end product is the "Spectral" sound. Besides that, we don’t feel required to play just one specific style. We just play what we like and let the music happen. I also found that your songs contains very melodic, catchy riffs, you are mixing two very extreme styles - black and death metal. How did it happen? The catchiness and recognition of each song is very important to us. Any band could, in quotations, make "noise" and record a black or death metal album that sounds like a lot. We try to keep away from that. If you listen to a Spectral disc, you will always identify it as "Spectral". Because of that, melodic riffs, catchiness and also hardness in our songs play an important role. Do you have any personal favorites among the songs from the upcoming album? For example, I like tracks as ''Dark Traveler'' and ''Death to a King''. My favorites are "Lord of Fire", because it's very fast, melodic and catchy. "Tank Attack" is almost an old school hit. You will have it stuck in your head after just a few times hearing it. "Into Oblivion" is also very strong song because of the catchy refrain and also the general structure of the song. I would also add "Curse of the Black Sea", because it's a racing, light black metal style song, which sounds as if it was from prior Spectral albums. Where did you record the forthcoming material and who was the producer? Also, who has done the cover artwork as well? Just as our prior four albums, this one was recorded, mixed and mastered in the "Gernhart Studio" in Siegburg with producer Martin Buchwalt (Gerneral H. P. Bushmills). The tracks were exceptionally well and heavy recorded. This is due to us taking over a month to record them and also because of the quality of the studio. The cover artwork for "Gateway to Death" is very well done. It was drawn by a friend from Hamburg and altered with digital elements from us. As a matter of fact you are coming from Germany so do you have any shows and offers outside Germany so far? The majority of our gigs are in Germany. We did have the chance to play live in Austria and Luxemburg. It would be nice to get more chances in the future to play in other countries. Maybe even in Serbia. We will try to show our new album "Gateway to Death" live to as many metal maniacs as possible. So, if there is any kind of interest, just speak up! www.spectral-metal.de.vu And for the end I would like to give you a chance to present your band to our readers. Not only to describe your style but also it will be welcome if you can compare Spectral with some other bands as well which could suit more to our readers if they want to get into your music. Alright! In general, we all are heavy metal freaks! We like to drink a bit beyond capacity at times and have fun with the music. Our motto is "Bang Your Fucking Head!" We appreciate every new fan and hope that our new CD "Gateway To Death" will be a hit! |
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